Draft Shop Front Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document

Wychavon District Council and Malvern Hills District Council have published a Draft Shop Front Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for consultation in accordance with Regulations 12 and 13 of The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Draft Shop Front Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document consultation will run for six weeks from 9:00am Monday 24 October 2016 to 5:00pm Monday 5 December 2016.

Please click on the links below to view / download the following consultation documents:

Wychavon Community Contact Centres at Pershore, Evesham and Droitwich; Libraries at Evesham, Droitwich, Pershore and Broadway

The deadline for comments on the Draft Shop Front Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document consultation documents is 5:00pm on Monday 5 December 2016. If you wish to submit comments, please complete and return the response form before the deadline.

The SPD was originally adopted in April 2011. The SPD is still considered very relevant, but the policy background has changed, and since its adoption, the Local Plan policies it refers to have been superseded by the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) policies, and nationally, the National Planning Policy Framework. Thus, as it stands, the existing SPD carries very little, if any weight. As a result, we are consulting on a revised Shop Front Design Guide SPD for Malvern Hills District. The SPD has been amended to reflect the current policy position but the substantive design advice in the SPD remains.

The Shop Front Design Guide was initially published in 1995. A new SPD has been produced to update the guidance to reflect our aspirations for shop front design and to reflect current planning policy and planning advice, with the aim of achieving attractive shopping streets that appeal to both locals and visitors.

The aim of the SPDs is to explain the vision for the design of shop fronts and signage, including the installation of signage, lighting and security measures to both traditional and contemporary shops and those located within rural and urban areas. As well as being applicable to retail units, the guidance will also apply to catering, financial and professional service businesses located within our historic shopping areas.

These Guides are designed to be used by business and property owners, architects and designers, Planning Officers and Inspectors, and will be predominantly relevant to those premises with a ground floor display window and/or fascia sign. The main towns of Malvern and Wychavon benefit from Conservation Area designations within their central shopping areas, which place greater restrictions upon unacceptable forms of development. For this reason, we consider that more detailed and comprehensive guidance should be available for these areas.

Once the SPDs are adopted, the SPDs will supersede the Wychavon Shop Front Design Guide, adopted 1995 and the Malvern Hills District Shop Front Design Guide, adopted 2011.